Basically, I had nearly always done it in the past with the "milking" method (i.e., pumping the top of the shaft and the glans). I used lube relatively seldom.
After the last hospitalization, though, and the resulting ED and current rebuilding of my sexual life, I have had to focus on other areas of my package. I found I've lost a good deal of immediate sensitivity in my glans.
I've found that very lightly stroking the scrotum (and very slowly), I find that I can give myself a nice "chubby" when I eventually get good and aroused. I'll take my hand away and do what a partner would've done, like moving up to my nipples or my hips and torso and, after a few seconds, go back down to the meatus, just barely touching it. Then, continuing back and forth between these areas, and then focus again on my scrotum and finally going to the base of the shaft. By this time, my glans has gotten good and hot, and I finally do some pulling on that. Being always short of a total erection, I find I have more loose shaft skin to help stimulate the head.
It may or may not lead to orgasm, depending on whether or not I feel up to it physically, but I've accepted it as a part of my aging process, and I've always at least given myself some fun.